Lot 186: A rose, a tulip, an iris, poppies, and other flowers in a glass vase, with seashells on a table

Jacques Grief, called Jacques de Claeuw (Dordrecht before 1642-after 1689 ?)
A rose, a tulip, an iris, poppies, and other flowers in a glass vase, with seashells on a table
signed and dated 'JClaeüw: 1651' (lower right)
oil on panel
25 7/8 x 18½ in. (65.8 x 47 cm.)

Amsterdam, Pieter de Boer, Collection d'Hiver, 1966-7, no. 9.

L.J. Bol, Holländische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts nahe den grossen Meistern, Brunswick, 1969, p. 343.

with Pieter de Boer, 1966-7.
with Silvano Lodi, Campione d'Italia, 1974.

VAT rate of 17.5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.
The small surviving corpus of works by de Claeuw is composed primarily of Vanitas still-lifes, a context in which the present picture is a notable exception. A similar flower piece by the artist, also dated 1651, was also with Pieter de Boer in 1966 (see E. Gemar-Koeltzsch et al., Holländische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert, Lingen, 1955, II, p. 249, no. 78/3, illustrated). The rapid, economical brushwork with which these flower pieces are painted presages Rubeniste tendencies of eighteenth century French painting, and would equally have suited nineteenth-century tastes.

Trained by Abraham van Beyeren, de Claeuw is known to have been active in Drodrecht, Leiden and The Hague between 1642 and 1665. The year when he painted this picture - 1651 - was the year in which de Claeuw settled in Leiden, and also the year in which he married Maria van Goyen, becoming the son-in-law of the celebrated Dutch landscapist Jan van Goyen. De Claeuw was also the brother-in-law of Jan Steen, and these two relationships indicate his standing in the tightly-knit artistic networks of the Dutch Golden Age.